


The Lady Hufflepuff

by minnabird



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Founders fic, Historical, Other, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-12
Updated: 2011-06-12
Packaged: 2017-10-27 18:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnabird/pseuds/minnabird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Much has been made of the rift between Gryffindor and Slytherin and Slytherin's subsequent flight from Hogwarts, but history has all but forgotten the tragic end to that night.</p><p>For, when Slytherin left, his faithful lover followed...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lady Hufflepuff

**Author's Note:**

> This poem won Best Poem in the 2011 Quicksilver Quill Awards (jointly with the opaleye's The Lost Weeks). It's based on "The Lady of Shalott," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

The sun lit on the yellow morn  
And sparkled on a flowing bourn  
And two gay figures who had sworn  
Their loyalty to Hogwarts school.  
A better match was never seen  
Than sly-eyed Slyth’rin, tall and lean,  
And, with bright and happy mien,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.

They dallied in the dappled wood,  
Smiling wide as e’er they could.  
But Salazar now stopped and stood,  
And spoke as they glimpsed Hogwarts school:  
“He may wish to wear a crown,  
But he will never bow me down,”  
Drawing now a worried frown  
From Lady Hufflepuff.

Red and green: contrasting hues,  
Doomed to clash as discord grew.  
Helga gave it not its due  
Even as the rupture grew  
At the heart of Hogwarts school.  
Helga’s beau shunned amity,  
Bringing forth calamity,  
Drawing now the enmity  
Of Gryffindor the gruff.

As a king who, from his castle,  
Looks upon a straying vassal,  
So looked Godric at the gracile,  
Smiling man with ways too facile.  
Fearing now for Hogwarts school,  
Helga tried to stop a duel,  
But the fight had grown too cruel;  
“Talking seems but anger-fuel,”  
Sighed Lady Hufflepuff.

And at the duel’s appointed hour,  
Grappling on the highest tower,  
Green met red with blazing power;  
Battle that must soon devour  
Unity at Hogwarts school.  
The snake left Godric nearly dead,  
But Ravenclaw came forth instead.  
Beneath her onslaught, Slyth’rin fled,  
Sans Lady Hufflepuff.

Along the night-dark lakeshore eerie  
Helga followed, grim and weary,  
‘Til Lumos light shone, dim and dreary,  
Lighting up her lover, leery,  
Glancing back towards Hogwarts school.  
Seized with joy, she made a dash;  
Too late, she saw his sword-blade flash;  
Too late to dodge a lethal gash,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.

Though ripping pain made Helga quake,  
She pushed away the throbbing ache  
And conjured up a boat to take  
Her final journey ‘cross the lake  
To meet her friends at Hogwarts school.  
Rowena found her on the shore.  
“I’ll stay here always,” Helga swore.  
And with that oath, she breathed no more,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.

Bold Gryffindor joined Ravenclaw,  
And shuddered at the sight he saw,  
And, as the guilt began to gnaw,  
Repented of his fatal flaw,  
The pride that fractured Hogwarts school.  
His paper-thin composure cracked,  
And as he wept he made a pact:  
“We’ll keep her memory intact,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.

“Her loyalty now brings me shame.  
His flight, her death – I bear the blame.”  
Said Ravenclaw, “They’ll do the same,  
And cross the lake as Helga came,  
The pupils new to Hogwarts school,  
And carry on her memory.  
No songbird sang in sweeter key,  
No sun shone warmer than did she,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.”

They laid her where the violets grow,  
Two founders, by their grief laid low,  
And students filled with tearful woe  
For their broken Hogwarts school.  
“She’s kept her vow,” spoke Gryffindor  
In husky tones: “She’ll leave no more.  
She was the best among us four,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.”

And when they speak of Founders four  
And of the flight begat by war  
Between the snake and Gryffindor,  
They speak of Hufflepuff no more,  
Those who speak of Hogwarts school.  
But in a leafy yew-tree bower,  
Overlooked by Hogwarts’ towers,  
Sleeps she still beneath the flow’rs,  
The Lady Hufflepuff.


End file.
